Ten Years In: Why Accenture Is Code Platoon's Volunteer Partner of the Decade

Ten years ago, Code Platoon set out to help Veterans, Servicemembers, and military families build careers in tech. A decade later, one partner has shown up for nearly every chapter of that story — not as a one-time sponsor, but as a sustained, hands-on presence in the lives of our students.

This September, as part of our 10-year anniversary celebration, we're recognizing Accenture as our Volunteer Partner of the Decade.

More than a logo on a slide

That volunteer spirit didn't start with a formal program. Paul Knudtson, an Aerospace & Defense management consulting senior manager at Accenture, became one of Code Platoon's founding board members in 2016 — and he's still serving on the board today. He's one of several Accenture people who showed up individually, on their own time, well before resume coaching or mock interviews became structured parts of the relationship. The programs eventually caught up to something that was already true: Accenture people have been volunteering alongside Code Platoon for nearly all of its ten years.

Plenty of companies say they support Veterans. Accenture built infrastructure around it. Since 2022, Accenture volunteers have coached students each cohort through the hardest part of a career transition: turning military experience into a resume, an interview, and a job offer that a civilian hiring manager understands.

Resume coaching is the most visible piece — Accenture employees meet one-on-one with students to sharpen their engineering resumes and, just as importantly, translate what "I was a Navy aviation mechanic" or "I ran damage control on a cutter" actually means to a tech employer. Across 22 cohorts, that's 145 volunteers, 400 students supported (many coaches come back cohort after cohort), 1,200 resume versions revised, and 1,000 volunteer hours. Layer in mock interviews, and Accenture professionals have logged real, structured time helping students walk into interviews ready instead of guessing.

Then there's the work most people never see: pro bono consulting. Accenture's team partnered with Code Platoon to design an administrative platform that helps our instructors track and engage students as they move through the program — the kind of behind-the-scenes tooling that makes everything else possible at scale.

Led from the inside, not assigned from the top

What makes this partnership different is who's driving it. Accenture's Military ERG — employees who are Veterans or military-connected themselves — built this relationship and has carried it for years. As Ray Marciano of Accenture put it, the ERG has been "the driving force" behind the entire partnership. This wasn't a corporate directive handed down; it's people who understand the transition firsthand, choosing to spend their time closing that gap for the next cohort.

That shows up in the numbers, but it shows up more in the stories. Accenture resume coaches and mock interviewers have watched their students land interviews, then offers, then careers — and several Code Platoon alumni have gone on to work at Accenture themselves, some now returning as coaches and mentors for the next class behind them. It's a loop that keeps feeding itself: Veterans helping Veterans, for a decade.

A decade of showing up

From a first ERG-led fundraising campaign in 2020 to grant funding, two pro bono projects, and a resume coaching program that's expanded alongside every new curriculum track we've launched — Accenture's involvement has grown in step with Code Platoon itself. That kind of staying power is rare, and it's exactly what "Volunteer Partner of the Decade" is meant to honor.

Join us in celebrating it

We'll be recognizing Accenture in person at Celebrate Code Platoon on September 23, as part of our 10-year anniversary festivities. If you want to hear the full story — and meet some of the alumni and volunteers who've lived it — we'd love to have you there.

And if your company is reading this and wondering what a decade-long tech nonprofit partnership could look like: this is it. Whether it's resume coaching, mock interviews, pro bono expertise, or hiring pipeline support, there's a role for your team. Learn how to partner with Code Platoon and help write the next ten years of this story.